


Of Owls And Tattoos

by amylou22



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Tattoos, Canon Compliant, Implied Kyoutani Kentarou/Yahaba Shigeru, M/M, Magical Tattoos, Mentioned Konoha, Mentioned fukurodani, Tattoos, Theyd be sass twins, Violinist Akaashi Keiji, Yahaba and Akaashi went to middle school together, idek why
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-13 01:14:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7956400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amylou22/pseuds/amylou22
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As a child, Akaashi found out that the tattoos that detailed important moments in your life weren't the best. But upon starting at Fukurodani High School he discovers that maybe, he was wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Owls And Tattoos

It had always been quite a big deal despite all the people that refused to understand it and wouldn’t care about it’s  origins. No one argued over it as much in the recent years but accepted it as their new way of life. This had only began a few centuries ago and scientists were baffled by it. There was no scientific reasoning behind it so schools preferred to keep it out of their curriculums  which Akaashi  was pretty glad for because he felt like that kind of explanation would cost him a lot of marks in a test if he didn’t understand it. Usually a child’s parents would tell them about this new ‘feature’ that the body would develop every now and again but some preferred to leave it for the child to find out for themselves which was probably a bad decision in the long run.

Akaashi had never been the type to question why things happened. If that was the way he’d been told then he’d just go along with it, which made it easy for him to excel in classes. He got his first mark at the age of 10. It was a band around his right arm with an arrow drawn inside it. Later that week his father was found dead, a bullet wound in his head and the bag of books Akaashi had asked him to get from the library. These ‘marks’ didn’t disappear but stayed with you for the rest of your life like a tattoo. They didn’t happen too often (much to Akaashis  relief) and were only used to alert you of a significant event that would happen in the near future. 

Some liked the marks and desperately sought out what the marks were meaning and others much like Akaashi himself refused to think about what would happen if they got another. His second mark appeared when he was 12 and just about to enter his first year of middle school. The band was just above the previous one but was slightly thicker with a large wave filling the inside of it. On that day he had absolutely dreaded going to his first day of school but was pleasantly surprised when he met what would be his closest friends for the next 3 years, a chatty yet sassy brown haired boy named Yahaba Shigeru. Their friendship was pretty short lived when he moved to the Miyagi prefecture to attend Aoba Johsai high school on a volleyball scholarship since he missed out on the one to Fukurodani  thanks to Akaashi himself.  It’s safer to say that their friendship ended on pretty bad terms thanks to that. 

Now a young man as his mother put it he was ready to start attending Fukurodani  high school the next day. His uniform has been neatly ironed about 3 times now by the previously mentioned anxious mother and was sitting neatly on the end of his bed. Moving the pile of clothes onto his desk he slipped into bed and pulled the covers over his head. The next morning was probably his worst start to a day ever. He woke up on the floor with a aching pain around his shoulder blade which he guessed has a bruise from falling off the bed in the middle of the night. Standing up and throwing the mess that his duvet had become onto his bed he took of the baggy t-shirt he slept in and turned around to see the bruise that would probably be decorating his back. Instead of a big purple bruise across his back he was greeted with the sight of a massive water colour style great horned owl with its wings outstretched in flight covering the entirety of his back. Grimacing, Akaashi pulled on his school shirt and adjusted his tie before pulling on his trousers as he headed down to the kitchen for breakfast. 

The school was just as hectic as he thought it’d be. Volleyball practice would start in a few minutes so Akaashi headed towards the locker rooms that a moody 3rd year had directed him to. The locker room was almost empty save for two slightly rowdy older students in one corner. Putting on the blue t-shirt and shorts issued by the volleyball club he headed into the gym. The coach greeted him and introduced him to the team that had already gathered. Practice went on pretty well, Akaashi spent most of it moving around the spiders and getting to know how they liked their tosses since he would be their new starting setter since their old one left the year prior. Around ten minutes before practice was scheduled  to finish a rather odd looking boy walked through in training gear rubbing his head sheepishly. 

“Sorry coach. The teacher wanted to talk to me about my over the summer homework and it dragged on way longer than I thought.” The boy excused himself. 

“Don’t forget that school is just as if not more important than volleyball Bokuto. Now that you’re our ace we can’t afford to have you sitting out a tournament because your test scores were low!” the coach reprimanded him. 

This strange boy, Bokuto, Akaashi reminded himself, began to walk over to him. Now getting a closer look at his face he realised why he looked so peculiar. It was the way his hair was spiked up into two horns of an owl. Registering the possible connection to the tattoo Akaashi was ready to turn and walk away but before he could move the excitable ace shouted out to him.

“Hey! Hey! Hey! Are you the new setter?” Akaashi nodded hesitantly “Toss for me!”

And before he even knew it Bokuto Koutarou had became the center of Akaashi Keijis  life by his second year. His days after school were filled with him tossing to Bokuto and hanging out with the rest of the team. His violin lessons had almost been forgotten about and he had given the excuse to his mother that ‘He thought it’d save money if he didn’t go’ and slowly but surely, each night he would either be at Bokutos  house or Bokuto would be at his. And this feeling was slowly growing, so he did what he knew he had to. He called Yahaba.

“Hey it’s Yahaba Shigeru. Either my phone is off or I’m ignoring you, but leave a message anyway!” That same old voicemail message was just as irritating as he remembered.

“I know we haven’t really spoken since you left but there’s something going on. I got another mark before high school started and I think it’s one for love and I don’t know what to do. Yahaba, you are the only person I know that I could talk to about this. Please call me back.” Akaashi hung up and threw his phone to the other side of the bed. 

His teammates had obviously seen the mark before considering they had been using the same changing room for about a year but they all just assumed it was to mark starting high school. The mascot was an owl after all.  Quite a few of his teammates, Konoha and Bokuto included had something to do with owls on their body as well so everyone came to accept it as the social norm. 

After completing a few maths questions for homework his phone started ringing. Akaashi tried to calmly walk across the room to get it but in the end it was more of an awkward skip he grabbed the phone to answer it. 

“Gee Keiji, I didn’t know you still knew I existed after patching me for two years.”

“You didn’t really speak to me so how did I patch you exactly?”

“The details aren’t important.  I’m pretty happy at Seijoh anyway so thanks for shipping me halfway across Japan first high school.”

“So we’re good then?”

“I guess so. I got to meet my soul mate. You know the one that a mark directs you to?”

“Yes I’m quite aware of how it works Shigeru. And good for you. But was that more directed as a jab at me?”

“You know me well Keiji. But for you’ve known them since the start of high school then how has it taken you a year to realise that it’s a soul mark?”

“It’s like this giant owl across my back and since that’s the schools mascot I paid it no mind. But this guy literally looks like an owl so yeah. You get the situation.”

“It’s so nice to be the calm and collected one for once!” Yahaba exclaimed.

“That’s really not helping.”

“I’m sorry. But are you planning on doing something about it? Or are you just going to move on with life and die from old age with no one to hold you on your deathbed? Or will you fight?”

“But Bokuto-san doesn’t exactly seem like the kind of person who would understand this kind of thing.”

“Bokuto as in Bokuto that’s in the top 5 aces?”

“That’s him.” Akaashi  frowned.

“Just talk to him. Make sure he has a tattoo that might relate to you though.  You don’t want to be marked with someone that’s marked with someone else.”

“Thanks Shigeru.  I knew I could count on you. “ 

The beep that came from his phone told him the conversation was over but buzzed a second later with a text from Yahaba. 

8:55pm – You Can Do It Keiji

Standing up with newfound determination he phoned Bokuto. 

“Hi Akaashi! What’s up?”

“Is it alright if I come over for a while or meet you somewhere?”

“Yeah, the doors unlocked. Are you alright though Akaashi”

“I’m  fine. I’ll be there in 5 minutes”

This time, Akaashi was the one to hang up. He shouted to his mother that he was going to Bokutos and would be back later. Stepping out the door, he shivered at the sudden rush of cold air. A quick stroll later and he was outside Bokutos door. 

“C’mon Keiji. You can  do this.” He encouraged himself before opening the door.  Climbing up the familiar staircase,he headed to Bokutos room. When he entered, Bokuto was sitting on his bed reading a sports magazine. Akaashi sat next to him and marvelled at the beauty of Bokutos golden eyes as they moved from the article about dieting to meet Akaashis own eyes. 

“Bokuto – san , I have something to tell you.”

“Akaashi what are you do-“ Bokuto stopped as Akaashi finished pulling his shirt off to reveal the watercolour great horned owl that covered his back in all its glory.

“I think. That this might be my soul mark for you.”

Bokutos eyes widened in realisation and his own arm moved to pull up the sleeve of his own shirt. There was Bokutos own owl themed tattoo. A ying-yang sign with a black great horned owl and a snowy white barn owl was shown on his shoulder. “I  think this might be my soul mark for you.” He replied.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know where this came from. I'm doing a similar piece for a folio in English and the idea just came to me.  
> I was going to make Akaashis middle school friend Kenma but I didn't think they'd talk too much about Soulmarks so I thought hey! Yahaba was never said to have gone to kitagawa so let's pretend he lived in Tokyo. And yes, yahabas soulmate is kyoutani even though I never added a specific name.


End file.
